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Apple update patches serious DNS flaw in Mac OS X

In a BIND no more

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Two weeks after internet overlords warned of a serious vulnerability in one of the most widely used programs for resolving domain names, Apple has updated its Mac OS X operating systems to fix the security bug.

The update, released Wednesday, patches a hole in BIND, the net's most popular domain name system package. It's available for both client and server versions of the Mac OS and follows an update released last week that plugged 18 holes and a separate fix issued on Tuesday for six holes in Apple's Safari browser.

It brings relief for a logic issue in the handling of dynamic DNS update messages that allowed attackers to crash servers at will. Exploits using an ANY record in the prerequisite section of a crafted dynamic update message were already in the wild, prompting urgent calls for software that incorporated BIND to be updated as soon as possible. ®